Thursday, March 10, 2011

To prepare for the tiny party, I tried to make everything very pretty and as co-ordinated as possible. I chose the colours, light pink, dark pink, and red, based on the paper I found at the scrapbook store that I used in many of the decorations. Normally, I wouldn't think those colours would look too good together, but I loved how this turned out!

I hung the dark pink paper lanturns I bought at Micheals over the table, along with the tiny tissue paper puffs I made from both red and light pink tissue paper. To make them, I followed the same basic steps, but first I cut the sheets lengthwise down the center. This made them very cute and full once I separated the tissue, but it was much more time consuming to separate the layers without tearing them since they were so much closer to the center attachement.

I made a mini-triangle banner from the papers I found, with each triangle being about 2.5" wide, and 4" tall. I hung them with pink ribbons over all the windows on the main level of our home, and even on the cabinet in the kitchen.

I wrapped all the gifts from our family in co-ordinating shades of pink and red wrapping paper, (plus two gift bags) and finished them off with a bit of ribbon. Very pretty!

The party drinks in their small pitchers with a bit of ribbon on the handles.

In the background is the flower-covered pinata. After making a basic pinata, I used my glue gun to attach flowers in all shades of red and pink. I added a pink satin bow on the top for just a little extra beauty.

These tiny glass goblets might have been my favourite find as I prepared for the party. I got them at a dollar store for 50 cents each! I was so thrilled! They stand just over 4'' high. I added just a quick bit of pink and white polka-dotted ribbon on the stem of each, which delighted my daughter and her guests.

These are the 2" diameter place cards I made for each guest.

A close-up of one of the teensy-tiny party hats I made. From top to bottom, they were only 4" tall.

The party hats too, were made of the co-ordinating papers, and finished off with red or pink tissue paper fringe.

Beautiful party preparations.

When I made the invitations, I of course, made them very small. Then I made a small envelope to fit it, and held it shut with a 'please come' seal. Then I put the home-made envelope inside a slightly larger store bought one, then in another slightly larger one, over and over, until the tiny invitation was wrapped in six layers of envelopes (the birthday girl was turning six after all!). When her friends recieved their invitations, the outer envelope was the size of a regular greeting card, then as they worked their way through the layers, everything got progressively smaller, until they had shrunken down to the proper size for the tiny party. I thought this was a charming idea, but I can't take all the credit for it. I am sure I read it in an old Martha Stewart magazine years and years ago.

The invitation began, "We're celebrating in a BIG way at her tiny party."

I bought these plain white tiny gift boxes, and made them beautiful and personilized for each child by adding a name tag mounted on co-ordinating papers, and glueing on micro fabric flowers. Then I lined each with a bit of red and pink tissue paper, and they were all fancied up and ready to be filled.

I made a "Little Girls' Room" sign and hung it on the bathroom door so that our guests would be able to find it, should the need arise.

I had three little dessert choices ready for the children to choose from. I thought taking a picture of them next to a ruler would help show just exactly how small they really were!

Pink frosted cookies.

Teeny-tiny cupcakes.

I made two birthday cakes for the party. Since I was doing a small cake, (6") I wasn't sure that one would be enough for the nine children we were expecting, plus the accompanying parents. This one was light pink inside, (I just made my regular white cake recipe and added a touch of food colouring) and a dark, bright pink outside. I topped it off with fabric cherry blossoms and delicate extra-tall pink candles.

This cake is bright pink in the center, prepared the same as the first cake but with more food colouring. I wanted to frost it with solid white frosting so that when it was cut, the contrast between the outside of the cake and the inside of the cake would be more striking.

And it was! Just like I'd hoped!

You can read about our tiny lunch foods here, and about our fun party activites here.

I would also like to say a big THANK-YOU to Nichole Skelton Photography for the amazing pictures of our party! They are all so beautiful!